Inspired by Antonio Brown incident with the New Englad Patriots, NFL makes changes to personal conduct policy. What are they?

It’s hard to put into words Antonio Brown’s fall from grace. How does one go from being a Super Bowl winner and arguably among the greatest wide receivers ever to play the game, to being mired in a series of bizarre and sometimes very concerning on and off-field incidents, culminating in a farcical episode during an actual official game which ultimately led to his termination?

Antonio Brown has caused some problems

Without delving into the long list of Brown’s infractions, what we can say is that across the last two years, the former star WR has consistently engaged in a number of extremely questionable and at times illegal activities. Beginning with the falsification of his vaccine status during the global pandemic, Brown then faced a subsequent ban by the league. Yet, it wasn’t long before he was back in the spotlight, and in a massive way after he proceeded to march across the field during a game against the Jets in January of 2022, before disappearing down the tunnel. It would be the last game that Brown played for the franchise and in the NFL as he was cut shortly after. Of course, he then publicly aired his doubts about his relationship with then Bucs QB, Tom Brady, for good measure.

Since then, we’ve seen the 7-time Pro-Bowler skirting in and out of the headlines for a number of negative reasons such as his rant about Colin Kaepernick, an arrest warrant following a charge of domestic violence, failure to pay salaries to players and staff of the NAL team he owns, and most recently the expulsion of said team from the league after the franchise failed to pay league fees. In all Brown’s descent has been soap opera worthy and then some, and that’s precisely why the NFL has seemingly decided to review the personal conduct of players. Apparently, Brown’s behavior was a cause for concern.

So, what has the NFL proposed?

According to recent reports, the NFL has taken the decision to update its personal conduct policy in an effort to reflect changes that have been deemed necessary in the wake of recent cases. Where specifics are concerned, it’s understood that two individuals, in particular, prompted the move. There is Deshaun Watson who had multiple civil suits filed against him in connection with allegations of sexual misconduct, and Antonio Brown who we already examined above. Where Brown is concerned, it’s interesting to note that the new policy states that players “have an obligation” to let teams know of any potential violations of the policy ahead of signing with the team. The league confirmed it made the change because of cases surrounding Brown and “a few others.”

Regarding how that specifically relates to Brown, if you missed it, when Brown signed with the Patriots four years ago, he did so while knowing that he was facing a lawsuit that stemmed from allegations of sexual assault and rape. Needless to say, the Patriots acted quickly once they became aware as they released him just 11 days after putting pen to paper on a deal. Brown would later file a grievance against the franchise on the grounds that they did not pay him the first part of his reported $9 million signing bonus. The case was eventually settled. What this means in terms of the policy going forward, is that should a player fail to disclose any violations to a team ahead of the appointed time, the team in question can in fact withhold money that was previously promised to the player due to said violation.